Kaʻū News Briefs, Wednesday, March 6, 2019

La Réunion National Park in the Indian Ocean is a sister park to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes. Students and educators  from Réunion will make a presentation to the community next Monday at 7 p.m. at Kīlauea Visitor Center. Photo from La Réunion National Park

THE ISLAND OF LA RÉUNION, REPRESENTED BY STUDENTS -- who flew 27 hours to reach their sister, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park this week -- will offer a presentation on Monday, March 11 at a special 7 p.m. After Dark in the Park at Kīlauea Visitor Center.
     Réunion National Park comprises 40 percent of volcanic La Réunion Island in the Southern Hemisphere,north of Madagascar and east of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Réunion, a department (region) of France, and Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park are World Heritage Sites. They became sister parks in 2015. "The parks are oceans apart, but share many similarities: active shield volcanoes, endangered species, fascinating biodiversity, and environmental threats," said a statement from Hawaiʻi Volcanoes. La Réunion has only been settled by humans for some 300 years. The ethnicity of its people is largely French, African, Indian, and Chinese.

OCEAN VIEW HAD A BLAST as the start of work on the first stage of the long-awaited transfer station began Monday. Dynamite exploded as a prelude to big earth-moving operations that will result in the widening of the highway, part of the first stage of preparing for the transfer station.

     Greg Goodale, the head of the County's Solid Waste Division, told The Kaʻū Calendar that James W. Glover, Ltd. won the contract to widen the highway and install an extra lane, termed an "acceleration/deceleration lane," or "pocket lane," to enable motorists to get out of traffic while waiting to turn into the transfer station.

     Glover will pave the exit from the highway, but the driving surface on the site will be gravel. A temporary transfer station, covering about an acre and designed to be used once a week, will also be built as part of Phase One of the project, according to Goodale. The temporary transfer station will include a large concrete pad for parking the garbage dumpsters and trucks, similar to the pad at the present temporary transfer station.

     Phase Two calls for the permanent transfer station built to a new design. Goodale said the original design drawn up in 2008 will not be used as allocated funds will no longer cover it. In 2011, $3 million was appropriated by the county for the construction of a permanent transfer station in Ocean View. The county plans to build a facility similar to the ones at Volcano and Glenwood, which include the collection of mixed waste, and green waste disposal.
     Said Goodale, "The contract with Glover is just over $2 million. We are looking at having just over $1 million for Phase Two."

     A permanent transfer station was first promised to Ocean View in 2007 after an 11-member task force selected a 21-acre lot for the site. The site, makai of the highway and opposite the Iolani Blvd.junction, was presented to the community at a public meeting on April 6, 2007, and was adopted.  Plans were drawn up and an Environmental Impact Statement was completed in April 2008.

How many trucks does it take to collect garbage in Ocean View? The scene at the temporary transfer station, in operation since 2010, shows a green van on the left waiting for trash to be moved from the dumpster mounted on the truck to the right to the larger bin on the left by a claw mounted on the middle truck. Photo by Annie Bosted

     At that time is was estimated the facility would be operational in 2009. However, in 2010, the county took over a lot on Paradise Circlethat was allocated by planners for recreational use, as the site for a temporary transfer station.

     In 2015, Goodale wrote to Kaʻū County Council member Maile David to say that plans to build a permanent transfer station on the 21-acre site were to be scrapped and the site of the temporary transfer station would become Ocean View's permanent transfer station. Residents were dismayed when David broke this news in response to a question at a community meeting.  

     Residents called another meeting in October, 2016, to hash out this issue with David, Goodale, and Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd, who, at that time, was the Environmental Management Director in Mayor Billy Kenoi's administration. Goodale floated the idea of building a permanent transfer station on the Paradise Circle site. It was volubly rejected due to extra wear and tear on the private roads, and because the site borders the county's KahukuPark where playing fields, a pavilion, and a keiki playground are established.

A five-man volunteer clean-up crew poses behind some illegally dumped  trash they recovered from a puka in Ocean View last month; see Feb. 22  Kaʻū News Briefs. A comparable pile was also created between the two white  trucks in the photo. From left: Peter Bosted, Steve Lewis, Tomislav Gracanin,  Ric Elhard, and Berson Jitiam. Photo by Annie Bosted

     Leithead-Todd promised residents that within a year, the temporary transfer station would be moved from its present location to the 21-acre lot, where it would take up one acre. It would be open on Saturdays until the permanent transfer station could be built on nine of the acres. The permanent facility would be open for three days a week. The remainder of the 21-acre lot would be used as a buffer around the facility. Residents at the meeting were also told that the Waiʻōhinu transfer station had been damaged by a fire and that it would need urgent repairs. To date, the repairs have not been made.

     In February, 2018, a storm further damaged the dumping area, causing more problems for the county and slowing down the garbage collection process in Ocean View. The weakened platform at Waiʻōhinu meant that dumpsters loaded with trash collected in Ocean View could not be driven onto the platform, so trash could not be tipped into the larger bins for hauling to the dump. Instead, the county sent a vehicle with a large claw on a crane to the temporary transfer station in Ocean View. They also sent a large garbage truck and a larger bin. The solution was to use the claw to move garbage from the smaller bin to the larger bin. The extra staff and equipment needed increased the County's weekly cost of collecting garbage in Ocean View.  

     Recently, employees at Ocean View's temporary transfer station noted  that simultaneous dumping and transferring of bagged trash is "dangerous" and instituted a "one at a time" rule. Residents can dump for a short time, but then must wait in lines while that garbage is slowly transferred from the small bin to a larger bin. Then, the expensive equipment and claw operator sit idle while the residents dump their bagged garbage in the smaller bin before the 10-minute cycle is repeated.

     At times 20 cars and trucks are held up while the cumbersome equipment is in operation. Often, the bins are full before the scheduled closing time, so residents wanting to drop off their trash after 2:30 p.m.are turned away. The accumulated down time and shorter hours have meant less efficient collecting of bagged garbage in a town with a growing waste disposal need.  

Rep. Richard Creagan supports truth in labeling of Kaʻū and other regional coffees. Photo from Creagan's Facebook

     Goodale told The Kaʻū Calendar that the current time-consuming method of garbage collection would continue at the new temporary transfer station until the facility in Waiʻōhinu is repaired. He expects that work on that to begin in late April or early May.